Education
Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon
J.D., cum laude, 2002

Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
B.A., magna cum laude, 1987

Music Biography

Peter has an extensive background in the arts, on both the creative and business sides. He became an attorney specifically to help make accessible to artists the often impenetrable, obtuse and confounding world of legal issues and language.

As a musican, Peter has performed at the Academy Awards; numerous prestigious arts venues including the Barbican, Lincoln, and Kennedy Centers; festivals including Newport, City Stages (Birmingham), and Vancouver; live on innumerable radio stations including BBC, CBC, KCRW and Mountain Stage; and clubs such as CBGB, Freight & Salvage, Tractor Tavern, Iron Horse Music Hall, and the Cedar Cultural Center.

Peter had his first professional drumming gig in a strip club in rural Saskatchewan, shortly after answering an ad from a country band, a genre with which he was entirely unfamiliar. At Amherst College, he formed the indie rock band Cordelia's Dad with Tim Eriksen. Over the subsequent twenty years, they released seven albums, along with an assortment of singles and appearances on compilations. The band toured full time for several years, working their way up from playing living rooms to small clubs to premier festivals throughout the USA, Canada and Europe, including Newport, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, Sidmouth, Dranouter, Lowlands and Rudolstadt. Musically, the band has ranged from noisy, original punk rock to intense, acoustic traditional American music. They have shared the bill with a wide variety of artists, including Nirvana, Soul Asylum, Doc Watson, Dead Milkmen, Uncle Tupelo, Dwight Diller, and Cliff Richards. Their music has been favorably reviewed in Rolling Stone, TimeOut, Mojo, Boston Globe, Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, and on All Things Considered. Their most recent album, what it is, was released in the summer of 2002 on Kimchee Records.

Peter also sings Sacred Harp music. He has led several conventions and sung on several recordings of that music, including the soundtrack for the film Cold Mountain

Beyond Music
While his primary experience in the entertainment industry has been in music, Peter has also worked in film, theater, and publishing. As an undergraduate, he completed a 20-minute 16mm film combining optical printer effects with an original percussion score. He spent three semesters in the masters film program at California Institute of the Arts, before realizing that he was destined neither to be an independent director, nor to claw his way to the top from production assistant to studio head. (It was his film mentor that suggested a music career). In theater, he ran sound and lights for several summer theaters, built sets, and toured with the Nebraska Theater Caravan. In publishing, he worked in the marketing department of Random House books and freelanced for various New York firms. In Massachusetts, he helped science textbook publisher Sinauer Associates convert from traditional methods to computerized desktop publishing by doing the layout for several textbooks and training staff.

In law school Peter was a member of the Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law, and Editor-in-Chief of the Oregon Intellectual Property Newsletter. For the fall semester of 2003, Peter was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, teaching Music, Media and Music Business.

In 2004, Peter returned to Northampton, Massachusetts. The inaugural event of his relocated law practice was to coordinate the appearance of a group of 40 singers on the Academy Awards.

Peter now represents numerous national and local artists, along with small businesses and non-profits. He also represents individuals in the purchase and sale of residential real estate.

In the spirit of increasing accessibility to the legal system for underprivileged people, Peter devotes a portion of his practice to defending indigent people accused of crimes.

Memberships
Oregon State Bar
Massachusetts State Bar
Massachusetts Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
Massachusetts Bar Association and Hampshire County Bar Association
Bar Advocate, Committee for Public Counsel Services
The Recording Academy
Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Community, Inc.
Cornelius Honor Society